Lamb Meat: Why You Shouldn't Eat Lamb

Sheep suffer greatly to provide us with an "unpopular" meat. The average American eats only 1.1 pounds of lamb per year, in comparison to 60 pounds of beef and 100 pounds of chicken. Even in countries where eating lamb is more popular, like the UK and Australia, it lags behind other meats. Yet every year the meat industry kills millions of sheep for their meat.

A recent study in Animal Sentience found that sheep are both intelligent and emotional, displaying complex emotional reactions and distinctive personality traits. Like humans, sheep are individuals: some are shy, some are bold; some are friendly, others more reserved. Another study from The Royal Society discovered that sheep can recognize not just other sheep but human faces from photographs, showing advanced face-recognition skills comparable with humans. A neuroscientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, England, Keith Kendrick, told ABC News that sheep brain scans revealed their sophisticated organs: "If I gave you a monkey brain, a human brain, and a sheep brain, you'd be hard pressed to see major differences."

These smart and loving animals die extremely young—when they are essentially in their childhood—just to end up on a few people's dinner plates. In this article, we'll break down exactly what lamb meat is and why it's best to leave lamb off your plate.

What is lamb's meat called?

When we talk about killing sheep for meat, we need to distinguish between the different terms producers use for different kinds of meat. Lamb is meat from a young sheep, usually under a year to eighteen months old, while mutton comes from an older sheep, often three years old or more. Mutton is much less popular in the US, where it is "close to impossible" to find, but many countries around the world, including in Europe and the Middle East, eat mutton often. There is also a third term, "hogget", which describes the meat from a lamb aged between one and two years old. As such, the exact definition of what lamb meat is called differs from place to place.

Commonwealth countries

In Commonwealth countries like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, lamb is typically defined as meat from a young sheep who is less than 12 months of age. Sometimes there are legal exceptions around how many permanent incisor teeth a sheep has; for example, Australian farmers can also use the term lamb for a sheep who "does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear," even if the sheep is older than twelve months.

Commonwealth countries sometimes use the term hogget to describe sheep between 11 to 24 months old (in the UK) or 13 to 24 months old (in Australia). But it's much less common to see the term hogget, and terms change depending upon their context. For example, while specialty butchers or farmers might label meat as hogget, most Australian and New Zealand supermarkets label all meat from sheep aged less than two years old as "lamb."

United States

Because mutton is not popular in the US, nearly all lamb meat on the shelves comes from sheep between the age of 12 and 14 months old. But in fact, federal regulations in the US simply say that lamb "means meat produced from sheep". That means that lamb meat can technically describe any meat produced from any sheep, no matter how old she was when she died.

Indian subcontinent

In India, "mutton" usually refers to meat that comes from goats— not sheep. Sometimes "lamb" is also used to describe meat that comes from a goat! In contrast, meat which comes from sheep is not as popular in India. While lamb meat is available, there is not much regulation or demand for it.

Other definitions

There are many other terms that are used to describe lamb meat. Most of them describe some nuance in the sheep's age or feed when farmers kill her. Some terms you might hear include:

• Milk-fed lamb is popular in Europe, and describes meat that comes from an unweaned and very young sheep who is still dependent on her mother, usually only four to six weeks old.

• Young lamb describes a milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old.

• Spring lamb describes milk-fed lamb born in late winter or early spring and usually only three to five months old.

• Sucker lambs is an Australian term to describe lambs who are still dependent on their mothers for milk, up to about seven months old.

• Yearling lamb is a young sheep between 12 and 24 months old.

• Salt marsh lamb is popular in France and the UK, and describes the meat of sheep which have grazed on salt marshes in coastal estuaries.

• Saltgrass lamb is exclusive to Flinders Island in Tasmania, Australia.

Lamb meat production and consumption figures

Lamb meat has varying levels of popularity around the world. Let's take a closer look.

Sheep meat consumption

According to the OECD, the consumption of sheep's meat—including both lamb and mutton—is most popular in Kazakhstan, Australia, and Turkey. Amongst EU nations, Greece is the top consumer of lamb per capita, consuming around 27.11lbs per person per year. In the UK, the average Brit consumes 10.36lbs of lamb meat per year. American appetites for lamb are therefore relatively low, at only 1.1lbs per year, though lamb meat is growing in popularity, with store sales of lamb meat jumping 28% year-over-year in 2021.

Sheep meat production

The top three countries producing meat from sheep are China, Australia, and New Zealand. Other countries like Turkey and the UK also rank highly. In 2015, the US produced 70.6 kilotons of lamb meat, in comparison to China's 2,248 kilotons. Even though these numbers appear relatively low compared to other meat production stats, they represent over two million sheep who didn't even reach adulthood before they were slaughtered.

Why is lamb considered a healthy meat?

Lamb meat is primarily considered healthy because it's high in protein and contains important vitamins and minerals like iron, vitamin B12, niacin, zinc, and others. You can also find healthy fats, including Vitamin E, in lamb.

However, it's important to note that none of these healthy ingredients are exclusive to lamb. You can find the same vitamins in food as variable as peanut flour, soy sauce, and edamame, as well as many others (see below!).

Why you shouldn't eat lamb

There are lots of important reasons why you shouldn't eat lamb. Let's discuss a few key points.

Eating lamb is cruel to the lambs!

Eating not just any animal, but a young animal, causes a great deal of distress for both the lamb herself and her whole family. Young lambs are often still getting milk from their mothers when they are ripped away and cruelly slaughtered by factory farms. Lambs suffer all the cruelties that factory farms inflict on animals, including violent treatment, confinement in filthy living quarters, and terrifying final moments as they are transported en masse to slaughterhouses. Lambs on factory farms also experience tail-docking, a harmful and unnatural procedure in which part of all of their tail is removed, often leading to chronic pain or infections. The procedure is proven to be both painful and distressing.

As a result, eating lamb means increasing demand for these cruel practices. It means that sheep continue to have their lives cut short, and lambs—the children of the sheep world!—go to an early and frightening death.

Eating lamb is not always good for you

Though some people think lamb meat is healthy, it comes with its own risks. High consumption of red meat like lamb increases the risk of serious and chronic illnesses, including stroke, prostate cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Additionally, sometimes you can even taste the cruelty in lamb meat. Because lambs are often terrified and distressed before their slaughter, their bodies release adrenaline, which in turn uses up glycogen and means lactic acid is not produced after they die. This lactic acid is what keeps meat tender and flavorful, so when it's missing, lamb meat tends to taste tough and tasteless. It also goes bad quicker. The result is that your meat might not be healthy or tasty.

Eating lamb is bad for the environment

Though the production of lamb meat is comparatively low in the US compared to other animals, it's of course still high enough to make a terrible impact on the environment. Around the world, factory farms which produce lamb meat continue to devastate our environment. They pollute the air and water, lead to deforestation, and harm rural communities. Like cows, sheep both eat a lot (requiring more fertilizers, pesticides, and energy to grow their food) and produce extra methane gas when they belch and fart. According to a report from the U.N., 37% of all anthropogenic methane emissions come from livestock like cows and sheep. Another study published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal found that the production of red meat (which includes both lamb and cows) generates four times more greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent amount of chicken or fish.

As a result, eating lamb contributes to global warming and the climate disaster threatening our planet. Steering clear of lamb is a great way to advocate for the environment and help protect future generations.

Is there a vegan substitute for lamb?

Yes, there is a vegan substitute for lamb—in fact, there are several! Tofu and tempeh are great alternative protein options that don't hurt any adorable baby animals. They're versatile soybean products that can take on a range of flavors and cooking styles, so you could use them as substitutes in curries, gorengs, and even roasts!

You can also easily use vegetables, pulses, and beans in dishes that traditionally use lamb. For example, try our mushroom shawarma wrap for a vegan take on the classic Middle Eastern dish. Or bring potatoes and tomatoes to the fore instead of meat in a delicious aloo curry.

Make the world a kinder place for lambs

Many people choose not to eat lamb as a matter of preference already. It's a simple and easy change to make in your diet which sends a strong message to the meat industry and spares the lives of young and intelligent sheep. And, if you want to show a strong message of support for all animals—from frolicking baby lambs to schools of undersea life—you can join our movement to end the abuse of animals raised for food.